POLITICO

The biggest challenge facing the European Union in the coming years will be to forge a coherent foreign policy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published Sunday.

Merkel, who is poised to win a fourth term in Germany’s parliamentary election later this month, also expressed hope that a solution to the impasse over the distribution of migrants across the EU would be found in the “not too distant future.”

In the interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, she said EU member countries urgently need to find a common stance toward China and Russia.

“The world has to see that member states won’t deviate from a European consensus on these issues,” she said, adding that it was important to recognize that a country’s position would sometimes be overruled in favor of the bloc’s.

To help end the stand-off over the distribution of migrants across the bloc, the EU should “stabilize” all other elements of migration policy, by securing borders, developing a partnership with Africa and putting more pressure on smugglers, Merkel said. The success of its migration policy would also depend on EU countries’ willingness to show solidarity “with no if and buts,” she said. MORE